Athletic Challenges and Achievements by Ordinary People

Posts Tagged gymnastics

Humans do unbelievable things, and gymnast Ashley Watson has just set a record for this amazing high horizontal bar move. Here is his statement on Instagram: ashwatson92 My official Guinness World Records attempt! ‘The farthest backflip between horizontal bars’ 5.87m! #OfficiallyAmazing

The distance between the two bars is 19.3 feet. If you go to Watson’s Instagram page, you will see various videos of this 26 year old performing in World Championship competitions but also missing the mark in goofy, stunt practice attempts, like the one below.

Career Highlights: 2009 Australian Youth Olympic all around champion, 2014 British Championships high bar champion, 2015 British Championships parallel bars champion. Ashley has long been a member of the British Squad and was an extremely successful junior, back in 2009 taking the Australian Youth Olympic title. Despite suffering years of injury, Ashley continues to be an important member of the GB elite squad and is known for his work especially on parallel bars and high bar.

This is truly a breathtaking video showing some of the most extraordinary moves in women’s gymnastics. It includes floor exercises, horizontal bar and balance beam with captions identifying the different moves. Never knew there were so many variations. Very helpful in understanding what I see next time.

I have watched my share of martial arts movies and been impressed with the skill and choreography. Jean-Claude Van Damme (known as the muscles from Brussels) is no ordinary person, but his kicks and leg moves were always pretty sweet. He is 53 years old now, but check out his performance in this commercial, which was done in one take. Notice that the trucks are driving BACKWARDS!! Much harder. According to the Wall Street Journal, what you see is really what you get.

Ksenia Afanasyeva’s a Russian gymnast, was the reigning world champion for the floor exercise. She delivered a strong performance on Tuesday, until she crashed on her knees on her final pass. The mistake devastated her teammates, who were visibly shocked and upset.

You can see the crash in the video (scroll down) at this site . Jump right to 1:30 if you are short on time.

Amazing what these children can do. Some are not even 16. Ksenia is 20 now, and competed in the 2008 Olympics. They’ve been practicing for years, hundreds or thousands of hours. And it all comes down to one fall at the end of a masterful performance. Medals based on thousandths of a point or second. I know, I know…these are not ordinary athletes. Forgive me…but this is such a fabulous photo, even if the people are responding to a surprising set back.

Incidentally, Ksenia earned a 14.333 in spite of her fall. All three Americans earned 15 or over…one a 15.3. The Russian team lost to the Americans by over 5 points, so Ksenia’s fall did not cost her team the gold. Russia had to settle for the silver.

A friend once said that I have a site for old people. Sort of annoyed me. When I see athletically fit old people—and 86 is definitely old and not middle aged—it gives me the inspiration to keep on acting like a younger person. If the oldsters can do it, no matter how rare or exceptional, then maybe I can be one of them too. And if the youngsters mind their diet and develop healthy habits, they will enjoy the vitality of capable bodies much longer than if they think it will all be ok without paying attention.

I do admit that it looks strange to see this old German Granny, white hair and wrinkles, performing tricks that I couldn’t do at 24. But watch her do the moves…She must have good abs!

COTTBUS, Germany–Gymnast Johanna Quaas, 86, performed an impressive parallel bar and floor demonstration after finals concluded at Germany’s Cottbus Challenger Cup – setting the new world record for the Oldest Gymnast, according to World Records Academy: www.worldrecordsacademy.org/.

Displaying balance, strength and flexiblity that would be the envy of someone a quarter her age, Quaas’s floor routine included a handstand forward roll, cartwheel, backward roll and headstand, while on the bars she performed a full planche, holding her body taught and parallel to the ground.

A multiple-time senior champion of artistic gymnastics in Germany, Quaas, from Halle in Saxony only took up gymnastics when she was 30, putting an end to the belief that the sport is the preserve of the young.